Karahi King — Restaurant in Birmingham

Food: Starters: Chicken pakoras were nice. Katlama tasted nice but you could see from the colour of the pastry it had been refried. Fries were nice and crispy.

Main: Lamb karahi, roti and lamb biriani. We were asked how hot we want our food, we asked for their advice. We were told hot isn’t that chilli. It’s extra hot that’s really chilli. Not saying the waiter lied. Everyone has their own perception of flavours. We chose medium hot, but I found the biriani to be too chilli. Couldn’t eat more than a spoon. So beware if you can’t stomach hot food. On top of that the meat in the biriani tasted stale. The meat in the karahi was better, but the karahi itself was disappointing. Just meat in a below average tasting masala. The rotis were okay.

Service: Since I wear niqab, we wanted to eat in the family area upstairs. But we’re told it doesn’t open until 5pm. However, they kindly offered to put a screen up between us and the other diners. We were served by Mubeen who was extremely polite and attentive. May Allah bless him. Although the food wasn’t on par, the service was excellent!

Decor and ambiance: If I could describe it in one word, I’d say gloomy! The brown decor with white lights was depressing. I know they had attempted to create a cost feel but it was a fail. Avoid white lights and go for yellow if you want that. And don’t make everything dark. Mix warm light and dark colours throughout. Oh and there was a massive mural of horses on the wall. Come on people! You know the prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam forbade images of living things. Why do you think you can relax the rules when it comes to business!? We don’t care about what art you have on the walls. We want good food and good service.

Also we weren’t told we can’t pay by card until after we’d eaten and went to pay. We had to go to the cash point across the road to get some money out.

Final verdict: The best thing about Karahi King was the service we got from brother Mubeen. Maybe their other dishes are better. Allahu a’lam. But from what we had, I wouldn’t recommend this place for its food and...

I went to this restaurant for the first time last night (Saturday evening) with mum and sister- also their first time. The customer service was amazing- we were sat downstairs and our order was taken, until the Manager who was rushed told us to move upstairs as that booth was booked for someone else! Well then you shouldn’t have seated us there. So I said that’s fine and we went up only to find it full upstairs and where we were going to be seated against a brown table against the wall and not on the comfy seats would not have been comfortable for my mum so I went downstairs and told the Manager that seating upstairs is not comfortable! I said we will wait and then he was again rushed to sit us at the same booth that was already booked for a few other men- poor men so I didn’t want to argue and we sat down. Our food came and the chicken seekh kebab were delicious, best I’ve ever had with the naan and salad. Freshly made and piping hot and so filling! My mum loved it as did sis who never eats seekh kebabs! However I just felt the whole experience was rushed, after 45 minutes the same Manager comes and tells us that the table is booked for someone else now, well don’t rush us as we were still eating! He told the other waiter to clear our table when I was still finishing my food and fries but I got up and we got the fries packed. The food was delicious we ordered the same as take away for family member at home. However my mother was not very pleased or happy about being rushed and rightly so, neither was I! The Manager apologised and said when you come again will not rush you, how rude considering it was our first time! They really need to work on their customer service and not rush customers eating next time. Thank you. I will be back though just for the food 😂😋😋 inshallah

I was back a week later with my friend after this first experience, much better customer service and experience. We ordered the same. Thank you Khurram for your friendly...

Food was good , staff were polite and helpful and the service was fast. The restaurant is large and well decorated for a desi restaurant. The large painting of horses was impressive.

Why 2 stars then? I hear you ask. Simply the 'toilets'.

Whilst the toilets were spacious and nicely tiled and decorated but typical of Asian restaurants, the toilets were dirty, water everywhere, sinks were dirty, sink area wet, the cheap single pound shop soap bottle, to be shared between two sinks, had long run out and someone had added water to it to make it last. The chrome had long rubbed off the taps.

The econo-range powerless hand dryer made more sound then the hot air it let out. It was useless, therefore, rightly tucked in a corner as it was there for show rather than purpose. And, of course, no hand drying paper - that, just would cost a lot and would, most likely be thrown everywhere other than the paper basket. This brings me to the large plastic outdoor's bin which was proudly placed inside the toilet right next to the door blocking the entrance, persumablly out of lazzines as a smaller indoor's bin would require emptying more often. The toilet door was dirty, I used a tissue paper to hold the handle.

We know that our way of using a toilet is water intesive and, frankly, unacceptable in many ways. Why then have just 1 male and 1 female toilet to service a restaurant which roughly seats around 70? Have, at least 2 toilets each. And, why not place a permanent attendant to clean the toilet and to keep it dry after every use?

Finally, whilst the restaurant was proudly decorated, the bbq area was clean and well equipped but all of this decoration was let down by little things like no uniforms for staff and coke bottles stocked next to the fridge.

For many of us the above minor issues matter.

Parking: Its a busy road but there is paid...